Thursday, May 22, 2008

Are There Still Questions on Being Prepared?


This is not Nagasaki or Hiroshima...it is Kansas - May 2008!
Our emergency and disaster relief services are getting plenty of experience and increasingly skilled at preparing for and responding to these types of disasters. These events can have devastating effects not only on physical structures and assets but on the human spirit.
Efforts to assist people experiencing this level of destruction requires enormous logistical planning and resources and we must never give up helping our fellow citizens.

June 2008 Safety Month




ICE and Workplace Safety















ICE has proven to be quite an attention grabber when it comes to safety - and for good reason. The particular design employed by ICE4SAFETY is one that was not designed on a whim. The three colors used by the design are there for a reason.

Three color schemes improve visibility and recognition significantly. (Did you fail to see the FedEx truck going down the road - not likely.)
Costs for printing three color schemes are higher and worth it if it improves recognition - cuttings costs with safety usually means someone loses - but people continue to do it because they think they are saving money.
If you are of the mindset that you need to camouflage your safety presence for some arcane reason, then don't consider this symbol for safety!
There is NO mistaking the high visibility ICE symbol used here. It was designed by people in the safety business.
ICE4SAFETY along with a number of other safety organizations and private companies has approached OSHA to introduce the concept of ICE into the workplace because it uniquely compliments the workplace requirements for Emergency Action Planning (EAP) as prescribed by 29 CFR 1910.38(a) for General Industry and 29 CFR 1926.35 for the Construction Industry.
You can review some of the initial documents and ideas created for this Alliance with OSHA at the ICE Website . A slide show has been created for your convenience and it will be updated as the project evolves.
The basic premise behind the workplace safety initiative is that workers and employers to have a high profile- easily understood and representative symbol that can be employed on any job site or workplace representing what to do in an emergency. There is no reason why such a widely recognized symbol in everyday life should not be utilized to help industry more easily comply with federal workplace safety rules. Simple.